Pixar cuts the cheese a bit in “Ratatouille,” scores with “Short Films Collection”

I’ve always said that “A Bug’s Life” was the weakest Pixar film. It’s still better than most animated fare out there, but to me, it was their weakest entry in terms of its story and characters.

Now, I have to say that “Ratatouille” has taken its place as my least favorite Pixar film. Most critics out there disagree with me, as it is the best-reviewed film this year, according to Rotten Tomatoes, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed the other films in the Pixar pantheon.

Maybe it’s the ‘ick’ factor; the idea that rats would be cooks in a French restaurant. Maybe it’s the idea that French food is more art than nourishment. Or perhaps the Pixar films have set such a high standard with me that it’s a disappointment when they don’t come up to my expectations.

Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt) is a rat who discovers that he has a cultured palate; the normal staple of rat sustenance, garbage, doesn’t appeal to him. He comes across a cookbook, “Anyone Can Cook,” by a dead French chef, Gusteau (Brad Garrett), and is inspired.

Through a series of mishaps, Remy finds himself in Paris at Gusteau’s restaurant, which has been downgraded from five to three stars. He observes a hapless garbage boy, Linguini (Lou Romano), as he tries to make soup and fails miserably. Remy sneaks into the kitchen and repairs it, to the amazement of Linguini. The two of them partner up to become a chef that can wow hardened food critics such as Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole).

The restaurant is being run by Gusteau’s head chef, Skinner (Ian Holm), who has some rather nefarious ideas of what to do with Gusteau’s legacy. And Linguini’s success, plus a connection to Gusteau, threatens those plans. So he begins new ones to destroy him.

Extras on this disc include animatic deleted scenes, introduced by director Brad Bird (who also directed my favorite Pixar film, “The Incredibles”). Surprisingly, there is no director’s commentary on the film. Guess they would have had to include a second disc for that, and there’s not enough extra material to warrant that.

A new animated short, “Your Friend the Rat,” is narrated by Remy and his brother Emile (Peter Sohn), and covers the history of the rat. They do cover the Black Plague, but they place the blame for that squarely on the flea. It’s mostly conventional animation, and the “ick” factor does apply for those who don’t like rats.

A documentary, “Fine Food & Film,” is included. The camera shifts back and forth between Bird and French chef Thomas Keller, making a comparison between the making of an animated film and creating specialty dishes. It seemed a bit of a reach to me, but it was different than most “making of” docs you see on DVDs.

And finally, the hilarious animated short that played with “Ratatouille” in the theater, “Lifted,” is included. It was directed by Gary Rydstrom, who credit-watchers will know is responsible for the sound effects for movies ranging from “Indiana Jones” to the “Star Wars” prequels, plus all the Pixar films.

So, what did I dislike about “Ratatouille” that a lot of my fellow critics praised? I have always been amazed at how original the Pixar films have been. Where they could have done formula, they invented something new. The films were masterpieces of wonderful visuals and entertainment for children, while still providing enough in-jokes and references for adults to be enthralled.

“Ratatouille” just didn’t feel new to me. I just felt like I’d seen this before, like I felt “Cars” was a remake of “Doc Hollywood.” I didn’t hate this film; and I still maintain that a Pixar film, even “Ratatouille,” blows away most of its competition. Even that of its host company, Disney (case in point: the recent “Meet the Robinsons“). I just didn’t feel as enthralled as I have in the past. And it was especially disappointing, because I had been so impressed with Bird’s work on “The Incredibles.”

On the same day, Pixar is releasing a DVD of 13 of its short films on one disc. Almost all of these films are scattered across the DVD releases of its feature films, but “Pixar Short Films Collection” brings the advancements that the company has made in the field of computer animation into sharp focus (pun sort of intended).

As the documentary “The Pixar Shorts: A Short History” tells, the earliest of these films were shown at the computer conference Siggraph, where they were a huge hit. Pixar head John Lassiter explains that it was the first time that someone had used computer animation in a way to creatively tell a story, instead of just animating a flyby of Saturn or testing computer processing power.

Pixar was originally a unit of Lucasfilm, George Lucas’ production company. Steve Jobs bought the controlling shares and turned it into a division of Apple, creating and selling digital imaging software. They kept making shorts and television commercials until an exec at Disney goaded them into making a full-length feature film. The result was “Toy Story,” and the rest is, as they say, history.

Some of the shorts are stand-alone films, shown only at Siggraph and film festivals. “Tin Toy” won them their first Oscar. Some were created as bumpers to their feature releases, such as my favorite, “For the Birds,” which showed before “Monsters, Inc.” And some were created expressly for DVD release, such as “Mater and the Ghostlight” for “Cars.”

Extras on this disc include audio commentaries from the directors of the short films. The kids of the directors do the one for “Mike’s New Car”. And there are a few unadvertised bonus shorts; variations on the "Luxo, Jr." short made for "Sesame Street."

For the techno-geeks, the interesting thing is to watch the progression of the quality of the animation. The first film, “The Adventures of Andre & Wally B,” is very crude, but it was groundbreaking at the time. The animation quality slowly but surely improves. Look at the funky-looking baby in “Tin Toy” and compare him to the humans in “Toy Story,” then “Geri’s Game,” then “Jack-Jack Attack.” It is amazing.

If you buy both discs, you’ll get “Lifted” twice, but it’s a minor quibble. The “Shorts” disc has Rydstrom’s commentary, which is missing on the “Ratatouille” disc. You’ll also get offers for mail-in stuff from Disney.